Spotlight Wednesday: Meet GWR Social Media/Music Coordinator
A core group of passionate “Renaissance women” make up the GIRLS WHO ROCK team. With diverse talent and well-rounded lives, they work countless hours to produce an amazing event which benefits girls’ education, and we’d love for you to get to know them!
This week, Shante Skyers, GWR Social Media/Music Coordinator sat down with us to give a peek at what goes on behind the scenes of GWR!
How did you first connect with GIRLS WHO ROCK?
I don’t exactly remember how I found it, but I saw someone either mention or RT GIRLS WHO ROCK and I thought “Oh I wonder what that’s about”. I admired the mission and goal of the GWR and STF, so I emailed Cynthia and the rest is history.
What’s your role on the GIRLS WHO ROCK team?
I’m the Social Media/Music Coordinator, I recruit traffic towards our various social media profiles ( blog, facebook, twitter) by updating those pages. I also update the our tumblr blog with a music post every Tuesday, connect with out fans by giving them the latest GWR/STF news and current music news and stories through tweets and facebook statuses and everything else in between! I’ve realized that my role and tasks grow everyday!
What’s your day job or professional/academic area of expertise?
I have a degree in Arts Management, so I have had not for profit education, but most of my past internships and field related jobs have been within the music marketing industry. Currently I work as an Executive Assistant at NappOrganics, a beauty company, part time sales at The Container Store and I’m a full explorer of post-graduate life.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far while helping to produce GIRLS WHO ROCK?
Planning an event is even more difficult than it appears. They are so many things that you have to do; it’s crazy!
What’s the #1 thing you want people to know about what goes on behind the scenes of GIRLS WHO ROCK?
We make sure to have fun!
Five favorites of the moment (think fast!):
Female artist: Nina Simone ( I’ve been playing her songs for the past 3 days)
Website/blog/app: Lipstick Alley ( I’ve become obsessed)
Restaurant in NYC: Cafeteria
Book: Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas
Concert you’ve seen in NYC: Beyonce
What is a memorable story or fact you learned about girls’ education in the developing through She’s the First?
That only 14% of students in Uganda go on to high school. However with help from the Arlington Academy of Hope, 100% of their students were able to go onto high school, and I find that to be amazing.
Give a shout out to a special teacher or mentor who shaped your own education, so that you can be where you are today in NYC, on this team.
There are so many teachers/mentors whose influence have led me to GWR. There’s my history teachers from middle and High school, Mrs. Smith made the subject so exciting that I decided to take it upon myself to learn about various cultures/countries; to Ebonie Johnson Cooper, who after I watched, from afar, her transformation from the for profit world (BET/MTV) to doing more not-for-profit work, I realized you can really have various careers in your life and its even okay to stray away from the path that I believed I thought I would take, to do what is in my heart.
How is covering music stories different than “traditional” news stories?
They are pretty much the same, you still need the “who, what when, where, why”, but the good thing about music stories is that I can voice my full opinion, which is something that I always like to do.
Fill in the blank: A Girl Who Rocks is…not afraid of taking a leap into the unknown.
Filed under: regular by GIRL WHO ROCK
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